A Personal History of Becoming Buddhist

This page is a personal history of my becoming Buddhist story. One thing, before I get going, I don't really consider myself Buddhist in the sense of how a Tibetan, Zen, Nichiren, et cetera would call himself or herself a Buddhist. I considered myself a Buddhist in the sense that I follow the Buddha's teaching as much as is possible without following any one tradition. You may have to read the pages of my website to fully understand this. You'll find much clarifying information throughout these pages. This is how and why this site came to be -it was my desire to make sense of the many and varied Buddhism beliefs. Ultimately, I prefer the Buddha's dharma without getting caught up in any one Buddhist tradition. I believe this to be more pure when delivered in this manner.
Anyhow, how I got started, my life, and becoming Buddhist for those that are interested more in my personal story. I believe, if nothing else, it is of value as it is in this way that all of us identify with each other. In this, if not all ways, way we are much the same. Your story is probably very similar to mine. Maybe you have taken some different turns, but still, much the same.
I was born late summer in the early sixties. My parents were of no particular religion. As a result, I, nor my siblings did not receive any religious training, formal or otherwise. I remember my seventh grade teacher telling the group we were Christians.I still remember thinking 'Am I really Christian?', and 'how does he know if I go to church or not?'.
To me, at that time, I only understood being religious not Christian. That to be religious you went to church. I never realized there were varying sects and factions within the Christian faith. It never dawned on me that there were religions outside of the Jesus-monotheistic God persuasions. Neither did it dawn on me that I'd be so interested in religion later in life.
Now, my Grandmother was religious. She often talked about God and Satan and a number of other related topics. In fact, she was quite concerned about the whole deal. I never heeded any of the talk as either good or bad. It was just talk. At best thisreligious talk piqued my curiousity about religion. Besides Grandma lived in the other side of the country. It would be years before I began the process of educating myself in these matters.
Later, when I'd been informed of the general story of creation, Adam and Eve, and the serpent. My first thought, or one of my first thoughts was why did God set this all up just to fail?If God is all knowing and all powerful then he must have known that Adam and Eve would betray him. So, why bother with creating any of it, if it really bothered God so much? The simplicity of this manner of thinking would later help me identify with the Buddha's dharma.
Christians will try and pass this off as God having given us free-will. This means that you have a choice. You can be bad and go to hell, or you can be good and go to heaven, et cetera. Really, it still means the same thing -God made a world that he wasn't happy with. And, he knew this! Why?
At any rate, even as a youngster I felt there was something deeply amiss with this whole Christian religion affair. Now, I couldn't put my finger on it with certainty. But, everything seemed very unclear, even foggy with the whole Christian story. And later, after I understood the Judeo-Christian connection, that too. I now believe this to be similar to how the Buddha saw the Brahmanic tradition/religion of his day.
Along with the lack of religious instruction, there was a general lack of good, solid life instruction. Add to that being raised in a wild northern boom-town and there's a pretty good cocktail for a troubled life without much direction.
What this means is that I was lost as to having any purpose in life. Life was a messy haze at best. There was no clarity at all. Getting high, and not on life, was a big priority. This is a definite sign that something in life was and is amiss.
I had friends or acquaintances that found God. They made this out to be the answer to life's problems. That all was now good in their life because of this belief. To me, it still didn't register as something I could relate too. The Christian foundation stories are simply not solid. One of the biggest issues was that these people that turned to God did not become better people. They were still petty and did things that Godly people weren't supposed to do.
Becoming Buddhist is continued below, keep in mind that I am currently in the process of revising the pages below ...

Becoming Buddhist Part 2

Becoming Buddha Part 3

Becoming Buddha Part 4.END=OM MANI PADME HUM.( 3 TIMES ).RESEARCH TIBET DHARMA BY VENERABLE GESHE TESERING TASHI.VIETNAMESE TIBET NUN.( NHA TRANG ).29/1/2012.